Ousmane Dembélé, the violent charge: “He plays like an autistic person”

Author of a very average Euro 2024 with the French team, Ousmane Dembélé is violently criticized by Jorge Sampaoli.

It’s a little phrase that could make some noise. After Euro 2024, the magazine So Foot interviewed several coaches to decipher the competition, and among them, Jorge Sampaoli had some very harsh words against Ousmane Dembélé. For the Argentinian coach, the winger of the Blues and PSG is a soloist who has no use in the offensive animation of his team.

“When Dembélé overflows, the other players are like spectators watching how the action will end. They know that he plays like an autistic person: he starts the action and finishes it all by himselfasserts the former OM coach. He doesn’t have the ability to make a teammate shine, he just knows how to make himself shine. (Kylian) Mbappé, it’s a bit the same.”

Jorge Sampaoli destroys Ousmane Dembélé

Beyond the use of the term

“autistic”clearly inappropriate, Jorge Sampaoli highlights a flaw that is often criticized in the French international: his waste in the final gesture. Last season, the former Parisian compiled 6 goals and 12 assists in 42 matches with Paris Saint-Germain. A performance that is far too low for a player of his value.

But for Eric Rabesandratana, Ousmane Dembélé’s problem is above all psychological. “He has a big problem, it’s the management of emotionsexplains the former PSG defender.

It’s not a question of talent or of missing too much. In the finishing of his actions, very often, (…) he is incapable of dosing everything that he is going to do behind the effort that he has just made physically.

Ousmane Dembélé’s real problem identified

“He’s the best dribbler. In the stats, he’s the one who hits the ball the best in the worldnotes the former PSG defender in The Evening Team. We must have told him 100 times: ‘You have to put it there, you have to work’. But the only emotional response he has is to put in force. And suddenly, he completely loses what he has done and we think he is annoying us because he is failing at everything.”

“But I think that’s just what he needs to sort out. Because technically, he’s capable of taking free kicks, curling shots, tight shots, doing anything.concludes the former captain of the Red and Blue. But today, he has this big problem with managing his emotions which means that everything goes to hell every time he finds himself in a dangerous situation.”